VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or San Jose?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on El Nido’s own page.

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. El Nido 92, San Jose 30: El Nido leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, San Jose 72: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 70 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 41 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, San Jose 20: El Nido leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, San Jose 30: El Nido leads by 16 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and San Jose.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

El Nido in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
368 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSan Jose

Where the figures come from

El Nido has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSan Jose
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m25 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSan Jose
City population51,3671,013,240
People per km²562,167
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow El Nido or San Jose somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.